un-norm your day

​I used to wait tables in college. To make money you have to serve guests. To my astonishment some of my colleagues would refuse to take tables or ask if I would take them – not because they were SLAMMED but, well…because they did not want to be bothered. These were the same people expecting great tips to supplement their income. That expectation was often never met by our guests much to the surprise of their server.
 
The office setting provided further surprise as I realized people aren’t always into doing their job.  A raise and praise – bring it on, but the minutia of details needed to insure that would happen was supplanted by a “good enough” effort to make it to clock-out time.
 
Having just had a weeklong collaboration with someone that made my project theirs,forgoing the direction I had simply laid out, the complications cost the end result to suffer. Once again the reminder of effort, acceptance and doing what is in front of me was shown to be of utmost importance. It served as reminder that I cannot put forth the “good enough” effort. Striving for more, learning and building on past results, good and bad are essential. Not only to my personal wellbeing and peace of mind but to those around me. 
 
These folks checking their phones at the stop-light are holding up traffic. They are in the way. Their lack of effort to work for the sum of the whole languishes in the desperation of  a “me first” attention span.
 
As a personal trainer I learned that the norm is that trainers do not show up. Trainers! Not the clients. Not giving their personal clients a heads up if they are running late is the norm. No. It. Is. Not. Or shouldn’t be. That’s crazy to me, which makes me the outlier. Suit up. Show up. That is the norm, the standard – at least from the people I follow on social media and who I keep in my close circle of friends and go-to colleagues.
 
There are certainly days where life gets in the way of my plans but keeping me out of my own way and becoming the un-norm is my most best self I can be today. I was told a while back to show up early, keep your mouth shut and stay late – as it pertains to being a worker among workers. If I accomplish 2 of those things on a daily basis I am doing okay. All 3 – un-norm.
 
Be the un-norm, not the norm. Serving those around us serves ourselves.